European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - August 17, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Symik Cochran associated Pressw Ith eyes twinkle and a smile on her lips. Belly Biggs says the folks of the Texas Panhandle need not Frel Over the ills and injustice of slate government. I  says she the Panhandle of Texas ought to secede and form a state of its  she jokes with the country wit of a weekly newspaper editor who s seen the Best and worst including a ram and dust storm that dumped mud balls on Panhandle a Hamlet Northeast of am Anllo. But residents of the farms and ranches and wide open spaces of the Panhandle have Long called that isolated chunk of Texas the syst Sale. And nol always in Good humor. Though fiercely Independent the people of the Panhandle Are separated physically from the rest of Texas and often feel neglected and ignored by their Noti foiling Beel Hren in Dallas Houston Austin and elsewhere. We have a Grealer kinship geographically Environ manually economically and recreation ally with Eastern new  says Byron Price director of the Panhandle Plains museum in Canyon. We re live hours closer to Santa be than we Are to  indeed parts of the Texas Panhandle Are closer to five stale capitals than heir own in Austin which is 500 Miles away. The Panhandle people of Oklahoma. Nebraska Idaho Florida and West Virginia have Simitar complaints. They share problems stemming in Par from isolation economic imbalances philosophic differences or geographic quirks. Idaho is famous for its potatoes but its Panhandle residents can t find Idaho potatoes in their restaurants and s Jpe markets. Their potatoes come from Washington. Pensacola. On the Western tip of the Florida Panhandle is 620 Miles from Miami and 550 Miles from Orlando. That Means it is closer to Houston Memphis. Atlanta and Cairo iii., than it is to Miami. Some wags refer to the Florida Panhandle As la lower Alabama. The governor of Alabama Sven offered to buy part of the Panhandle a few years Back. The former publisher of a newspaper in a tiny slice of Northwestern Oklahoma cavalierly dismisses the non Panhandle bulk of the slate As Southeastern  and he put up a billboard announcing to travellers from the West that they were entering Guymon Home of the most lied about Walher in Iha i United  West Virginia claim two Panhandle people in the Eastern Panhandle arc closer to the nation s Capitol than their own in the Northern linger residents Are squeezed Between Ohio and Pennsylvania and can travel to Pittsburgh. Cleveland or Columbus much laser than to Charleston a schizophrenic situation contends a West Virginia broadcaster who lives in Wheeling. In 1982, the Star Herald of Scottsbluff neb asked its readers if they favored the 11 counties of the Nebraska Panhandle breaking away to join Wyoming. Eighty live percent of the 2,004 people who replied said  Al the Lime. Keith Kemper publisher of the Alliance neb., times Herald dismissed the Issue As a Winter diversion a joke and tossed out a suggestion of his own. What we ought to do is go into Colorado instead of Wyoming. Then we d have the mountains and they d have a football team he said. Here Are some often common experiences of the nation s Panhandle people As reported from Nebraska Oklahoma Idaho Florida and West Virigina. Idaho residents of Western Montana Northern Idaho and Eastern Washington have joked for years of farming a 51st state because those areas have Mere in common with each other than with Eastern Montana Southern Idaho and Western Washington they Call the state Columbia or Wash Damont Wash id wont. Folks in the Timber and mining industries of Northern Idaho contend they Are misunderstood and neglected by Boise the slate capital. They can t see Why their Lush forests and Rushing Waters were patched together with Southern Idaho s Farmers Fields and deserts. Several Southern counties Are among the state s driest. Areas in the North receive More than 60 inches of rainfall annually. Geography adds to the problem since Northern Idaho is Cut off from the South by major Mountain ranges such As bitterroot and sawtooth and White Cloud Paks. The major link Between North and South is Highway 95 but motorists sometimes can t make the drive in Winter. When they can it s an eight hour trip from 0 d Alene South to Eloiso this obviously could discourage commercial Zirtov Between North and South and explains Why the i Panhandle gets its potatoes from Washington. Mate served by three communications and business cent and two Are out of the state. Southeast Idaho is a by sail Lake City. Southern Idaho by Boise and Northern Idaho by Spokane Wash. Northern Idaho s last serious secession move me came in the 1950s of ice a Temperance group sought repeal of a 1347 Law allowing Slot machines and Purchase of liquor by the drink the Idaho supremo court eventually rfo5 Tho Sass the machines. But you can still buy a drink. Regional tensions heat up each year when the legislature convenes and a current Issue a a state lottery. Northern idahoans want it. Southerners Mal them members of the Church of Jesua Christ of lat Day saints oppose it. Those Southern mormon Are trying to dictate i the rest of the slate How to live. Insists by Chase a member of the democratic National committee chairman of the Idaho racing commission and a Tor Sale senator from St. Maries in the Panhandle. The Northern people in the state have a whole different Way of thinking he said. Stale rep. James Stoicheff of standpoint agree we re More used to having bars up Here he is we re used to taking More chances. We re Freer n necessarily morally. But we Don t Lake Tifa quite so seriously. It s Okay to have a Little  Nebraska the Nebraska Panhandle is Range country like Wyoming and the rest of Nebraska is m farm country which explains in pan the Brittle relator Between certain factions of the co Husker stale. Secession is a recurring topic and occasionally a serious one. Four years ago the Scoll Bluff s Star Herald pet showed 85.z percent of the respondents favored the counties of the Panhandle leaving Nebraska and becoming part of  historian Frederick c. Luebke said at tit time he did t blame Panhandle residents for wan i i the state s boundaries redrawn because they Neva made any sense in the first place. T Page 14 the stars and St pipes